All Batman and DC Universe characters and merchandise are property of Warner Brothers, Dc Comics, or their subsidiaries and licensors. This site is for fan and educational purposes only. Legions of Gotham and all information, logos, pictures and features are property of Matt MacNabb (c) 2003-2008

All Batman and DC Universe characters and merchandise are property of Warner Brothers, Dc Comics, or their subsidiaries and licensors. This site is for fan and educational purposes only. Legions of Gotham and all information, logos, pictures and features are property of Matt MacNabb (c) 2003-2016

According to Steven E. Gordon's official website, Batman: Asylum "went into development after Batman: Subzero and was intended to be a Direct-to-Video also. The producer, Boyd Kirkland, convinced WB to let us re-design all the characters.

This was my first time I got to professionally design a "super-hero" show. Unfortunately WB decided to cancel the project and do a DTV Batman Beyond instead."

Legions Of Gotham sat down with Mr. Gordon last year to discuss this project, which in our minds had amazing potential.

LoG: When and how were you approached to work on the Batman: Asylum project?

Steve Gordon: It's been quite awhile, but the best I can come up with is it was sometime in 1999. I'd worked with Boyd Kirkland previously on several projects and most recently I had done some storyboarding for him on Sub-Zero as well as helping to flesh out some models on that project. I did some attitudes and expressions on Batgirl (and some others) as well as a few Misc character designs.

LoG: How far did pre-production get on the project? Were there any plot elements in place? Any other details about the project?

Steve Gordon: If I recall correctly a treatment had been written, but I don't think a script had been finished. The plot is pretty vague in my mind. I do remember certain elements including Joker being experimented on at Arkham and Bane escaping. Bruce was engaged and contemplating giving up being Batman and Robin became injured by Bane.

LoG: Where did you draw your inspiration from when designing the characters for Asylum? Are you a Batman fan at all? If so, to what extent?

Steve Gordon: I really was involved in comics too much at this time so I hadn't really been paying close attention to what was happening with Batman so I went back to the days of Neal Adams. This was the period I was most familiar with and felt it had never been utilized in animation. I was also asked to keep some similarity to Timm's design so it wasn't a complete departure. The intent was to keep the straights and curves look that Timm had try to utilize in his designs as well as keeping some of the more basic design elements whenever possible.

LoG: You did storyboard work for Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero, the DTV feature. Have you worked with Batman animation in any other capacity?

Steve Gordon: My only other connection was I was at one time asked to work on some walk cycles before B:TAS premiered. I'm not sure they were ever utilized.

LoG: Your website features presentation art for Catwoman. What can you tell us about a potential Catwoman cartoon?

Steve Gordon: This was intended to be another direct-to-video project that Boyd Kirkland was working on. I was asked to do a couple of quick concept drawings showing the two Catwomen. I'm not sure what the status is of this project, but I haven't heard anything recently about it. The designs on my web-site were not the ones they used, but were the ones I liked best.

While Batman doesn't pull any punches when defeating the villains in any of the comics one wonders what the legal repercussions would be in real life for these situations. Would The Joker contact a San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer after a run in with Batman?